Computational Thinking, Play, and Authenticity: Lessons Learned from a 6th Grade Robotics Program

Dr. Gerald Ardito, Dr. Katherine Cunningham Manhattanville College

Ms. Lauren Scollins, Pierre Van Cortlandt Middle School

Research Questions

  1. How do sixth graders write about their experiences of learning and practicing the computational thinking of abstraction during a robotics unit?
  2. How did students’ reflective journal entries indicate the presence or absence of freedom of play, exploration, and discovery?

Conceptual Framework

The Context

  • 20 sixth grade students participated in a 5-week LEGO Robotics Program as part of their math/science curriculum.
  • Robotics program designed by their teacher (Lauren)

Robotics Program Design

Robotics Program Design - Tangrams Challenge

Robotics Program Design - Robot Race Challenge

Robotics Program Design - Dance-Off Challenge

Student Prior Experience with LEGOs, Coding, and Robotics

The Methods/Data Analysis

  • Student journals were transcribed.
  • Student journals were investigated for features of and psychological dimensions of writing using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software.
  • Analysis focused on: Word Counts (WC), Analytic Thinking, and Authentic Discourse in student writing.

Findings, part 1 - Word Counts

Findings, part 2 - Analytic Thinking

Findings, part 3 - Authentic Discourse

What Did We Learn? - Familiarity Leads To Freedom to Play

  • Word Count was highest in most familiar/least abstract activities (robot race and final reflection).

  • Analytic Thinking was highest in the most familiar activities (tangrams challenge and the final reflection), despite the higher degrees of abstraction present in these tasks.

  • Authentic Discourse -The students were most authentic, most themselves, when they were writing about areas in which they felt confident and with which they were the most familiar.

Discussion - Developing CT Skills and Freedom to Play, Explore, Discover

The development of CT skills (especially abstraction) is influenced by freedom to play

This study suggests a young student’s experience of freedom to play in the way we are defining it is essential to the development of these skills.

Questions?

Thanks